Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa called his updated financial plan a new direction but in truth it had a nostalgic feel. With his government facing considerable fiscal challenges including an $11.7 billion deficit and growing debt, Ontarians desperately needed a new direction. What they actually got was more of the same: increased spending and a government reluctant to deal with core problems.
ontario deficit
February 5, 2013
2:00AM
Even Greece, the poster child for rampant debt, carried an Ontario-style debt load as recently as 1984
Don Drummond (2012) Commission on the Reform of Ontarios Public Services
February 5, 2013
2:00AM
I do not want Ontario to become like California Finance Minister Dwight Duncan once proclaimed. And it's not hard to understand why, California is a fiscal nightmare. It has the lowest bond rating in the United States and its own Treasurer, Bill Lockyer, referred to the state budget as "a fiscal train wreck." Yet, despite all that is said about California's finances in the media and financial markets, there is a Canada province that is in much worse shape. Welcome to Ontario.
March 24, 2012
3:00AM
If Ontarians are to believe Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, next weeks provincial budget will be the most significant budget this government has ever delivered. Lets hope so. With a deficit of nearly $16 billion this year and several more expected over the coming years, Ontarians desperately need and deserve a plan to return fiscal sanity to the province.